I have a diverse group of friends which includes some conservatives, some liberals, some moderates, some capitalists, some Marxists, some distributivists, some anarchists, some Christians, some atheists, some Jews, at least one Sikh, a Hari Krishna, and I think there is also a Pastafarian or two. There is one thing they all agree on. American society is headed downhill.
I'm pretty sure that if they were all in one room, they wouldn't be able to agree on what kind of pizza to order, but they can agree that American society is bad and getting worse. It's not just a little bit of it, either. It's the whole damn thing. The government, the education system, the quality of music, the level of discourse, the Church, parenting, public health are pretty much crashing according to my Facebook feed.
The funny thing is, the posts are never written from the first person point of view. It's never, "I, as a member of American society, am getting worse. My taste in music has become terrible. I've ruined my own government, and as for my parenting...don't even get me started. A little Benadryl never killed a child." That would, I think, be more honest. Instead we get the post from someone who has magically lifted themselves out of the society for a moment. It's always, "Your taste is getting worse. My government is getting worse because of what you did. Children are behaving worse because of what you did."
Who is the "you" that is responsible? Quite interestingly, at least according to my Facebook feed, it's the same group of people from the beginning. It's the fault of conservatives, liberals, moderates, capitalists, Marxist, Christians, and atheists. I even occasionally see people posting anti-semitic stuff because, well, the Jews.
Well, if these damn kids and their internets and rap music don't ruin this country, I don't know what will. The problem with the rap is its "heartless sterility, obliteration of all melody, all tonal charm, all music." Of course, that was actually said about Wagner in 1871, and similar things were said about Beethoven 50 years before that, and similar things were said about Bach 100 years before that. People have never liked the next generations music or their kids.
People have been complaining about kids since there were kids. The point is, the country is bigger now than it has ever been. For every (insert group you don't like) there are millions who are of a similar mind to you. The main thing is, you have to change the ones that are different from you by attacking them through social media posts. It worked on me. Well...it would have worked on me, but I spent yesterday on the internets and listening to Tupac.